Rohnert Park man pleads guilty in 2013 Gualala shooting

More than five years after he and a friend fired a shotgun blast at a parked car in Gualala that injured a woman smoking a cigarette nearby, a 26-year-old Rohnert Park man is headed to prison in the case, the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office announced.

Christopher John Ochoa will serve between five and 14 years in state prison when he is sentenced next month.

Ochoa and another man, Lamont Salgado, of Stewart’s Point, then 18, were arrested within hours of the Jan. 29, 2013, shooting, in which they reportedly fired a shotgun at the parked car in retribution for a perceived slight - someone whistling at them earlier in the day, authorities said.

Shotgun pellets struck a 39-year-old woman smoking in her front yard, partially damaging her vision, authorities said.

Ochoa was a fugitive for more than four years, fleeing town just days before his 2013 trial was to start, the district attorney’s office said.

But he was apprehended in November and headed to trial Monday when he pleaded guilty to felony assault with a shotgun, admitting he personally fired the weapon.

Ochoa is scheduled for sentencing June 13.

Salgado pleaded guilty in 2013 to felony battery and a misdemeanor charge involving use of a firearm in his vehicle.

-Mary Callahan